When you have been through enough playoff wars, like Vancouver Canuck captain Henrik Sedin, there is little that is new. Not even some potential inflammatory remarks from the opposition dressing room.

So when Calgary Flames centre Mikael Backlund declared a Game 6 victory for his side, Henrik practically yawned.

First Backlund.

"There's no way we're losing at home," said the Flame minutes after Thursday night's 2-1 Canuck victory that reduced Calgary's lead in the series to 3-2. "They didn't have much in our building, so we'll try to do the same thing Saturday night."

Now Henrik.

"I'm too old to buy into that," he said Friday. "I mean, you can say whatever you want about must-wins, or guaranteed wins. It's something, I think, that media and fans like but nothing that we really have looked into."

Slyly, the Canuck captain then threw it back at the Flames.

"They've been playing well but I felt last game they looked a little tired at the end of the game," Henrik said. "That's playoffs. They have a day to re-energize and I'm sure they're going to feel good on Saturday. But there is a lot of pressure on those guys and it's going to be fun to see how they react."

Even Kevin Bieksa, who loves to chirp - remember "Ferk-land" and irrelevant? - wasn't about to chew on the Backlund sound bite.

"I'm not a psychologist," Bieksa said. "I don't know how they're thinking and I don't care what they're thinking. We're kind of used to all the crap that is written all over the place and how everything is spun everywhere. I know how things are taken out of context. We answer your questions -- some of them are bad, some of them are good -- and, at the end of the day, we go out and play hockey.

"We don't really worry about the back and forth, what they're saying and what we're saying," continued Bieksa. "I know that we played a pretty good game (Thursday) and we're a good team on the road. So we'll see what happens."

The Canucks haven't been good enough on the road in this series, losing 4-2 and 3-1. In both games, they surrendered early goals, trailed after the first period and never caught up. There is no longer any margin for error. They lose Saturday and it's all over for their 2014-15 season.

"All I know is that we're feeling pretty good about ourselves going into Calgary," said Bieksa. "We've had some success on the road this year. We have a better road game to play than we've had in this series. So we'll go into their building and break it down into little segments . . . first period, take care of that and see where we go."

He also indicated the Canucks have figured a way to deal with the boisterous Saddledome crowd, which will be trying to will its team to a playoff series victory for the first time since 2004.

"One thing we talked about is not letting the crowd think you're playing worse than you are," Bieksa explained. "Just because they're loud and they're cheering doesn't mean we're playing bad. Their players are going to get some energy, they're going to run around and throw some hits but, if we're making some plays and controlling the puck, we'll be happy with that. So just be composed."

Canuck head coach Willie Desjardins didn't share the belief the pressure has shifted to the Flames. Calgary still has the opportunity of a Game 7 in the event of a Game 6 loss. The Canucks don't.

"The pressure is on us, it's not on Calgary, it's on us," stated Desjardins. "We have to win. Really, we're in the exact same position as when we came back from Calgary. We have to win the next game so our position hasn't changed at all."

Meanwhile, five Canuck forwards who played Thursday night were absent from Friday's practice: Nick Bonino, Chris Higgins, Jannik Hansen, Brad Richardson and Ronalds Kenins. Desjardins expected all five to be available for Game 6.

"We've had guys off before, we just vary how we practise," said the coach. "It's nothing unusual. They'll be ready to go, I think."

Photograph by: Mark van Manen, PNG

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